Tales on the Thompson and Western
Initially, the Thompson and Western franchise was developed as a web series. It was developed more akin to Rails of Highland Valley. It was made at a far lower budget than the final draft and the first few episodes used Text-To-Speech, although the later episodes had voice actors. Of the 29 stories developed, only 10 saw the light of day. NSWSteamFan describes the results as disastrous. It was largely panned by fans, with criticism focused on it’s unoriginality, lack of voice actors, overuse of characters and writing, although it’s comedy and route design received small praise. Despite it’s negative reception, it received a small cult following. After it’s failure, NSWSteamFan cancelled the series and announced plans to reboot it into an action film series. The original episodes remained on YouTube until the November 2019 wipe. All but two of the files were recovered. The planned movie special, Run to Revenge, will be redeveloped into Against Alexander’s Army. Media Aired * Two Engines in a Mess * Psycho Mike Destroys Caboose * Dave and Larry screw up (part 1 only) * Psycho Mike Drowns Autoracks * Halloween * The Switch to Trainz: A New Era * Christmas Special * Right-of-Way * Steamed Hams * Neville’s Finest Hour * Happy Easter Unaired * Two Engines in a Mess (demo version) * Hungry Pumpkin * Annoyance * Psycho Mike Sends Games Overseas * Mike’s Repaint Unfinished * Austin’s Day Off * The Good, the Bad, and the persona here * Psycho Austin Drowns Boxcars * Harison and Harley‘s Misadventure * Get Off My Train Now Cancelled * Psycho Mike Gets Sued * Dave and Larry Screw Up (part 2 only) * Psycho Mike Demolishes Roundhouse * Psycho Mike Smashes Camera * Run to Revenge * Music to my Ears * Runaway Rivalry * Are We There Yet Comparisons with the final draft * The early draft had lower production values, including the usage of Text-To-Speech voices. * The early version was less action-packed and more focused on slapstick comedy. * Alexander used to be less menacing and far more childish. He also didn‘t have a tragic backstory. * Austin seemed angrier and heartless. * Mitchell was far less intelligent, slightly more annoying and took situations far less seriously. * Ryan was much more anxious and timid. * Stella was referred to as Sidney, Alex was a female and referred to as Annie, Elena was referred to as Sarah, Skander was referred to as Skinner, Charles was referred to as Chalmers, and Dustin was referred to as Dusty. * Lilim and Micheal were Western Pacific F7s. * Georgia didn’t exist. * There was an unnecessary bias against CSX, Canadian Pacific, and VIA Rail. Reception Tales on the Thompson and Western was panned by railfans. Primary criticism was focused on it’s plagiarism of Rails of Highland Valley, use of Text-To-Speech voices, lack of original characters and continuity, juvenile writing, poorly drawn faces, subpar dialogue, and overuse of memes. However, the backgrounds and slapstick humor received mild praise. 2026 Productions described the series as “Just a blatant knockoff, but more pleasing“. Mr3801Fan 26 said that he found the comedy decent, but despised the use of unoriginal characters and over reliance on GoAnimate references. NSWSteamFan’s Response NSWSteamFan added some additional dialogue for Ryan to say some self-award lines that make fun of the series. In response to the criticism, NSWSteamFan recasted all the characters with Text-To-Speech voices with actual voices. The last media, Happy Easter, was the only episode to not feature any Text-To-Speech voices, excluding Steamed Hams. Despite his efforts, NSWSteamFan decided he couldn’t fix the series without altering the continuity and cancelled the series while a movie adaptation was in development. He later announced he was going to reboot the series into an action film franchise. The announcement was met with a mixed response. The original episodes can still be viewed on here by Vimeo users: https://vimeo.com/user105442692 Future? All but two of the files are kept on NSWSteamFan’s desktop. Wether he plans to reuploaded them or not has been clarified. NSWSteamFan plans to revamp these episodes and package them into a slice of life movie special. Recently, NSWSteamFan has had thoughts on making a TV series to tie-in with the the movies. It’s unlikely this will have anything to do with Tales on the Thompson and Western. Trivia * The script of Run to Revenge was eventually revamped into Against Alexander’s Army. * Most of this media was salvaged following the November 2019 YouTube wipe. However, part 1 of Right-of-Way are lost. * Part 2 of Right-Of-Way had the infamous "RYAAAAAAAAAAAN!" yell. * In August 2019, some stills from the unaired and unfinished media were revealed. * Ironically, RichmondCityRailfan announced plans to reboot Rails of Highland Valley around the same time as Tales on the Thompson and Western was cancelled. At the same time, Benthetrainkid announced plans to end Tales on Springfield Railroad and replace it with Philadelphia Rail Adventures. Neither of these tie in with NSWSteamFan’s plans to reboot Thompson and Western into a movie franchise. * Steamed Hams used audio from The Simpsons S7E21 “22 Short Films About Springfield", making it the only episode to not feature any original voice recordings. * Mike and Fred’s rivalry in Happy Easter was a foreshadow of Clash of the Railroads. * Right-Of-Way attracted criticism for plagiarism of Rails of Highland Valley S1E1, Tales on Springfield Railroad S3E21 and Rails of the Mojave S1E1. * Neville’s Finest Hour was supposed to air on January 2019, but was delayed to March. * An intro was created for the demo version, but was never used. * A clip from Harison and Harley’s Misadventure was on December, perhaps for promotional purposes. * Additionally, a preview of The Good, the Bad, and the persona here was posted around September 2018. * The Christmas Special reused some of 2026 Production’s voice recordings from The Good, the Bad, and the persona here. * The idea of Psycho Mike Gets Sued was inspired by a comment made by Ahatbears on Psycho Mike Drowns Autoracks. * The two Psycho Mike shorts were inspired by some staged vlogs made by McJuggerNuggets. * The idea of Get Off My Train Now came from the animated short film “Get Out Of My Car Now”. * Psycho Mike Sends Games Overseas reportedly featured a Tales on Springfield Railroad Easter egg. * The Switch to Trainz: New Era featured Disney/Pixar’s famous A113 gag. Gallery Tales_on_the_Thompson_and_Western.png|Early version of the main cast. Image1112.jpg|A still from Two Engines in a Mess (demo version) Image342.jpg Image234.jpg Image65.jpg Image5.jpg Image6.jpg Image45.jpg|A still from Austin's Day Off. Image546.jpg Image22.jpg Image235.jpg Image576.jpg Image55.jpg Image675.jpg Image8.jpg Image9.jpg Image10.jpg Image146.jpg Image12.jpg Image13.jpg Image14.jpg Image15.jpg Image16.jpg Image17.jpg Image18.jpg Image19.jpg 20180922171437_1.jpg|A still from Hungry Pumpkin. Image78.jpg Image7.jpg Just get on with it.png Image87.jpg Just get on with it - Copy.png Image6 (2).jpg Just get on with it - Copy (2).png Image6 - Copy.jpg Image567.jpg|A deleted scene from Psycho Mike Drowns Autoracks. Image88.jpg|Another deleted scene from Psycho Mike Drowns Autoracks. Image80.jpg Image556.jpg Image645.jpg|A still from Annoyance. Image875.jpg Image8776.jpg Image876.jpg Image5534.jpg|A still from Psycho Austin Drowns Boxcars. Image786.jpg Image77.jpg Image6644.jpg|A still from Psycho Mike Sends Games Overseas. Image886.jpg Image88665.jpg Image674.jpg|A still from The Good, the Bad, and the persona here. Image6786.jpg Image8865.jpg Image7554.jpg Image54-0.jpg|A still from Mike's Repaint. Kodachrom.jpg|A still from Harison and Harley's Misadventure (early version). 20181219182527_1.jpg|A still from Harison and Harley's Misadventure. 20181228141956_1.jpg 20190305173451_1.jpg|All that's left of the remake of Austin's Day Off. RYAAAAAAAAAN.png|RYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!! Category:Episodes Category:Shorts Category:Feature Length Specials Category:Season 1 Category:Lost Media